06/05 WSC ramble

Helloooo~! Just writing a quick little Dev update for WSC to give everyone a progress report.

Asher's route is complete (I believe it was almost complete at my last post).

I'm going back to work on Daaz's scenes now. And I'm also making revision notes for my big revision that I'll do after I write all the LI specific content. Daaz's path is a little more than half done at this point. I have two more chapters (7 and 8) which have a bit of shared content and then it's just working on the Daaz-exclusive chapters.

I'm currently using Asher's scenes as a guide so I can make sure anything that needs to be continuous across LIs is indeed continuous. And also for length - I am trying to make sure that all the routes are of similar length. Once I get into Daaz's exclusive chapters, I'll have a bit more freedom and won't have to try to balance out length and choices quite as much.

I still want them to be of similar length but I don't think it will be as noticeable if I'm a bit off.

I did update the game with the CGs - that, I think, was still in the works last time.

The snapshot is basically done and I won't be updating it until I start releasing the full game.

One thing that always happens when I'm in the writing phase of a game is that...there's not always a lot to say during updates because...like...with just writing, once you say "I wrote", you kind of covered all the work.

🤣

Unless I just start rambling about the writing process, which I can do because...hooo boy.

One of the things I've had to train myself to do is not get caught up on flaws I know exist within the story. I'll be honest - I'm not someone who completely refuses to go back and edit previously written work.

I know that most Writing Advice (™) suggests that you don't allow yourself to do this.

But sometimes I find it's necessary. If there's a major issue with a scene I know is going to be pivotal in how I construct later scenes...I will go back and fix that. I think it's necessary to have a functional foundation before you can build upon it. And sometimes I need to go back and edit previous content to correct a major structural issue.

What I find tends to be the problem with editing before you're done drafting - is when you allow yourself to edit due to anxiety and frustration. That tends to lend itself to editing loops because you're not really trying to fix something for the sake of progress, you're trying to fix it for the sake of assuaging your anxiety, perfectionism, etc. And those things are like a fire - they will not be satisfied by one editing pass much of the time. The more you edit, the more you convince yourself you need to keep editing.

So during times where I know there are minor issues or I'm just not really satisfied with the draft, I make myself keep slogging forward with the draft on the premise that I will come back to fix things later.

And that's kind of where I am right now. I know that there are some plot issues I'm going to want to fix and that I'll have to add some neutral scenes (which I was trying to avoid) to make some of the alternate endings make more sense.)

Side note: I'm not sure how to refer to the endings in this game.

I've been trying to veer away from bad/good ending language because I don't actually think that is accurate in terms of description. I think in a lot of games we could use happy/tragic endings but in WSC...

There aren't really any tragic endings at this point either. They're alternate endings where Wil does not end up staying with the crew. I may just stick with calling them 'alternate endings' for now. I don't know.

I need to work out a descriptive structure. In GS I had "passionate endings" (which were romantic and had a love scene), "sweet endings" (which were romantic but didn't have a love scene), and tragic endings (in which Sad Things happened.).

But in WSC I'm just not sure how I want to frame the endings.

Sneak Peaks and Snippets:

None this time. Alas!